i take your thoughts to heart
by champion lyra
Summary: Ryoken, Yusaku, and some small talk at Cafe Nagi. —DataStormShipping, RyokenYusaku.


**Notes**

**SPOILERS. **For season 3 of VRAINS, and speculation based on the upcoming summaries for 105. You've been warned!

That said, this is just a quick little thing I wrote to get back into the swing of things after finishing my YGOBB fic up! S3 has me really excited, haha - even the title was taken from the new OP! This is really just a pointless little thing, but hey, it was nice writing something on the shorter side again! Plus, I just got over the flu, of all things, cut me some slack, lmao. Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

"If you only came to gloat, leave."

Ryoken, for what little it was worth to Yusaku, looked honestly taken aback at his hostility. _Good_, Yusaku couldn't help but think, the words he just spoke still tasting sour. True to the older boy's character, however, he didn't back down; instead frowning from across the van's counter.

"That was not my intention," Ryoken told him, and this time, it was Yusaku's turn to be taken aback - his voice was full of… almost remorse, it sounded like. "I may not have," he winced, "cared much for the Dark Ignis-"

"Ai," Yusaku said, cutting him off. "His name is Ai." It didn't really matter now, not really, but Yusaku couldn't help the correction, anyways.

"...For Ai," the amendment came after a moment, much to Yusaku's surprise, before he cleared his throat and continued. "But it is still an unfortunate turn of events."

_That _was putting it lightly, Yusaku knew. There had been peace - tentative, sure, but a person could call it that - for just weeks after Bohman's defeat, before suddenly the news headlines were flashing about how Queen, CEO of SOL Tech, had gone missing. He hadn't wanted to go investigate as Playmaker, but Blue Maiden had contacted him and Soulburner on behalf of her brother, and, well…

He had owed her, he supposed. He didn't like leaving that for someone to gain the upper hand on him, even if it _was _Aoi Zaizen behind the avatar.

So he went, accompanied by quite a few other familiar faces, and behind the disappearance was none other than his missing partner and cleaning robot, decked out in what seemed like the new SOL Tech androids. Playmaker hadn't even lost to him, or anything like that. He hadn't even gotten the chance to _do _anything, as by the time he and the rest of the entourage arrived, Ai and Revolver were already in the middle of it.

Yusaku hadn't known what else to do besides stop the duel. Ai had then gotten away, Roboppy in tow, and Revolver looked terribly irritated about the turn of events, but he couldn't just let that go on. Ai had been his _partner_, even going as far as to call him an actual friend by the end of their time together. Revolver was - Revolver, yes, and also very important to him, but the fact that they'd be working together to defeat _his_ Ignis had been weighing heavily on him all day.

And now, here was Revolver, in the flesh, not even having the decency to wait more than twenty four hours to rub it in his face. "Just go," Yusaku said, exhaustion seeping into his tone without care as he waved tongs mindlessly. "I don't want to hear it right now."

"I told you, I'm not here to gloat," Ryoken said with a sigh. He put his hands on the counter gently, as if not to spook Yusaku, and leaned in just enough to make better eye contact. It was unusual to see him treat any situation with so much care, Yusaku thought as he watched the older boy. "I just wanted to…"

"Wanted to what?" He was curious, sure, but he was also in a horrible mood and it showed in his clipped tone.

Who could blame him, though? Not only had his partner - something that was _born from him_, actually - stolen his cleaning robot and went rogue attacking people, but he had no idea what was going to happen from here on out.

Kusanagi had already brought up the possibility of Ai trying to recreate the Ignis, which drove fear into both of their hearts like nothing else. There was only one way, that they knew of, to make such advanced AI; the methods being anything but pretty.

Ryoken didn't answer for a long time, moving himself back away from the counter before finally speaking. "I wanted to apologize."

Time seemed to stop for a moment, as Yusaku processed what, exactly, Ryoken had just said. "Apologize?" He asked, barely any inflection in his deader-than-usual monotone. "For what?"

Shifting on his feet, Ryoken looked away, the most uncomfortable Yusaku had ever seen him. "For," he paused, nearly choking on his own words, "your loss? I don't know," he said roughly, shoving his hands into his blazer pockets with a snarl. "Forget it."

Swiftly, he turned around, leaving an extremely confused Yusaku in his wake. Blinking, the younger boy stared after his retreating form, before his body started moving on its own.

"Wait!" He shouted, reaching over the counter for Ryoken despite him being much too far away to latch onto now. "Don't leave." The words were tumbling out of his mouth before he had a chance to process them - or to process _why _he was saying them. "Don't leave."

Ryoken stopped, dead in his tracks, just a few feet away from the counter of Cafe Nagi's van. In what felt like slow motion, he turned around to face Yusaku again, staring at him with those far, far too intense eyes. "Okay," he said after a moment; almost breathing out the word. "Okay."

Neither of them was willing to break the tense silence that followed for a few moments; the two boys just staring at each other, not wanting to look away quite yet. It was quiet at Cafe Nagi that time of day - with students mostly in school clubs or already at home and most adults still in work, so they were entirely uninterrupted until Ryoken finally coughed into his hand.

"Do you want to take a break? I could use some food," he said, awkwardly gesturing towards the menu beside him. "I think you know my order by now."

He did.

Almost robotically, Yusaku went through the motions and began grilling up two hot dogs, his mind on complete autopilot. He still wasn't sure what had come over him when he called out to Ryoken like that - this was someone he trusted, sure, but it was also the very same person that had been trying to convince him of Ai's evil nature since they met. Regardless whether he had been right or not, he had still come by with honesty and good intentions. Whether that was enough for Yusaku to seek out his comfort he wasn't quite sure of, but he didn't want to put too much thought into it while the other boy was standing right in front of him.

_Besides, _Yusaku reasoned to himself, if he had wanted to fight with underhanded tactics, he'd passed up a lot of chances in the past. Going back to that train of thought was almost grounding - it was one he was very familiar with, as opposed to the previous one. So many chances of blind trust from Yusaku; from teaming up without question to putting random executables into his duel disk without question.

Which left the fact that he really _had _shown up just to apologize, and stayed because Yusaku asked him to.

The why, though, Yusaku couldn't pin down, even as he flipped the hot dogs and buns.

* * *

They sat down after the hot dogs were finished, Yusaku still in his apron and feeling entirely out of sorts. It was rare that he spent any time with Ryoken at all, let alone one on one like this, and it was rarer still for Ryoken to be clearly stressed over his wellbeing. Conversation was stilted as neither of them knew where to go from where they had last ended, but Yusaku found he didn't mind much at all.

Normally, people set him on edge. Even Takeru or Kusanagi, who he had known for a while now, could make him feel almost claustrophobic in his own body. However, with Ryoken, he found the opposite to be true: even though he didn't know the older boy even close to as well, he found himself completely at ease for what felt like the first time.

It should've been alarming, really, yet Yusaku found himself sinking into the plastic chair he sat at, barely chewing on his hot dog. "Did you really come here just to apologize?" Yusaku asked out of the blue, breaking the silence.

Blinking owlishly, Ryoken nodded. "When I lost to Lightning," he began, clenching and unclenching the hand he held around his coffee mug, "do you remember what I said to you?"

"Of course," he responded instantly, because it was true. He remembered those words well - how he had finally, finally, called Ai by his real name, and entrusted his wishes to someone he had once considered his fated rival.

"I had my reservations from the moment I found out Ai vanished," Ryoken continued, and despite it sounding like he wasn't finished, he closed his mouth, moving to nurse his coffee instead.

Yusaku waited patiently for him to continue, but he never did, awkwardly flicking his eyes down to his half eaten hot dog to avoid Yusaku's green eyes. It was clear that he didn't want to talk about it anymore - had been clear about how uncomfortable it made him since the first time that day he had tried to say something polite - and so Yusaku let it go, not finding a point in chasing down this train of thought.

Regardless of _why_ Ryoken had deemed it necessary to come check on him, it was something nice, for a change. Something sorely needed, too, after yesterday. Seeing Ai like that had crippled his mental defenses and ruined any chance of a good night's sleep for the rest of the week; Ryoken's kindness and careful words were a welcome respite from those thoughts.

Even _if _he had originally thought the older boy had come there to gloat, of all things.

He stared at Ryoken for a few minutes as he went back to eating his hot dog, looking far too graceful while doing so. "Do you actually like the food here?" Yusaku asked, once again breaking the silence that had been laying out between them.

If Ryoken was surprised by the question, he didn't show it. "Yes," he said, nodding to his half eaten hot dog. "I wouldn't bother buying food if I didn't. No reason to waste money."

The answer was very like him, and Yusaku found himself nodding. It eased his mind a little, honestly, knowing that there would always be a reason for Ryoken to visit, though he wasn't sure _why _his mind jumped to that, of all things.

"Revolver?"

Both of them looked up from their finger food, Yusaku's face flushing red for a reason unbeknownst to him. "Kusanagi," he greeted, scraping the plastic chair on the ground in his haste to stand up.

"You can take breaks Yusaku, it's okay," Kusanagi laughed, keeping curious eyes on Ryoken as he did so. "What are you doing here, Revolver?"

His tone wasn't hostile, but Ryoken could tell there was an edge to it that wasn't unexpected. After what he had told Yusaku before the whole Ai mess had started, he certainly didn't blame the older Kusanagi.

"Just came for some lunch," he said, waving his almost finished hot dog lightly. "I'll be taking my leave now, however." With much more grace that his counterpart, he slid out of the plastic chair and stood, feeling Yusaku's eyes on him the entire time. With the way he had called out to him before, Ryoken was almost expecting him to do the same again.

"Thank you for stopping by," Yusaku said, a slight dip to his usual monotone.

Ryoken nodded, keeping that voice in his memory to dissect later. He'd never heard Yusaku sound like that - unless he counted that time on top of the Tower of Hanoi, but he tried very hard _not _to think of how Yusaku sounded that day. "Until next time, Playmaker," he said, giving a wave as he turned around, this time with no interruption.

Yusaku watched him go, eyes trained on to his back like they had been so many times before. He wasn't really sure what he got out of doing this, but he found it hard to tear his eyes away, even when Kusanagi was clearing his throat awkwardly next to him.

"What was he doing here, anyways? Came to gloat?"

Yusaku almost wanted to laugh.


End file.
